


The Harmonica

by HutchIsGorgeous



Category: Starsky & Hutch
Genre: Angst, Episode Related, Gen, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-12-31 07:13:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,931
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21110573
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HutchIsGorgeous/pseuds/HutchIsGorgeous
Summary: Starsky and Hutch episode "Survival" related.   See how a harmonica plays into Hutch's recovery.





	The Harmonica

Thank you Sparkle731 for beta reading this story. Any mistakes are unintentionally mine.

Comments welcome.

"Survival" episode related.

Story title: The Harmonica

Hutch was down in a canyon. Trapped underneath his totaled Ford Galaxie. In contrast, Starsky's Ford Gran Torino was still in mint condition and Hutch was close to death and no longer sensed Starsky searching desperately for his whereabouts.

Previously Hutch was alert enough to repeat doing the easy task of severely scolding himself. He was naughty alright. While still inside his Venice Place apartment, he hadn't made a quick phone call to Starsky to tell him he was meeting up with Lou Scobie and where. Where and how come.

Hutch also could've possibly got a hold of Starsky over the police dispatch radio before the blond had been pushed off the road by a man driving a dump truck.

However, Hutch scolding himself never ran along the lines that he deserved being trapped under the car with all of his body, including his broken left leg and an already bad back, engulfed in sheer agony.

###

Hutch had been rescued. At the hospital he complained to Starsky that his leg cast was too heavy, and it was preventing him from sleeping.

"Even the strong painkiller the nurse gave me isn't making me drowsy like it has done on other occasions I've been in the hospital. Also, my back hurts. A whole lot too! Do you think there's a chance I can have surgery on it tonight instead of on the 1st of next month like I'm supposed to have it done?" He asked with all hopefulness that even reached those blue eyes of his.

"Not with your back swollen from your 'little' car accident you can't!" Starsky yelled. He should be mad at Hutch for not telling him he was meeting up with Lou Scobie at the bar, but he was only seething in anger at Scobey, Humphries, his lawyer and Roy Slater for their part in injuring Hutch.

Slater, by the way, was dead, and kept him from going to prison for a long time.

Softening his voice to keep from shouting anymore and bothering Hutch's ears again, "Besides that, I don't trust anyone but Dr. Rey to operate on your back and he's out of town for a while," Starsky informed his partner and best friend.

He worried that anyone else performing the surgery would do something very wrong. Like make Hutch a permanent cripple instead of a temporary one as he was now.

The brunet then yawned, and he wanted to take a nap, but it would have to hold off until Hutch finally fell asleep. But Hutch continued to be wide awake, when Starsky had an idea.

Hutch had taught him how to play some songs on the harmonica and the gift shop was still open for the evening. Not that he'd ever seen the musical instrument in the shop before, but it was worth leaving Hutch for less than 10 minutes to check things out.

"Where are you going?" Hutch asked looking puzzled when Starsky started to leave the room.

"Right now, that's none of your business. But promise me you'll be okay while I'm gone."

The problem was, Hutch couldn't promise him that and his forehead broke out in a cold sweat. Too afraid if Starsky left him, even for a short amount of time, that someone would find a way to enter his room and suffocate him to death. Or maybe stab him to death with a hunting knife.

He was too weak to muster up enough strength to fight them off him. Plus, he was already bound to his bed. Not with handcuffs either. Or wrist ties. Or a straight jacket. Or the countless of other things he could think of. What had him bound to the bed was his casted leg held in the air by this sling-like thingamajig.

Starsky had to promise Hutch he would stay and not go anywhere out of the room. Next Starsky sauntered on over to the sink and got some paper towels to pat dry Hutch's sweaty forehead.

Then Huggy Bear and Captain Dobey arrived for a visit. Starsky wasn't tired anymore, but Hutch was exhausted and looked it! Obviously too frightened to fall asleep even with the three other men in the room with him.

Starsky whispered in Huggy and Dobey's ears something about the gift shop and a harmonica.

"You're too far away for me to pick up on what you're telling them, Starsk," Hutch whined, which was different from complaining. Or was it?

"Sorry about that pal, but it's really none of your business what I just whispered to them."

In answer to that, Hutch did have the energy to let out a long sad sigh.

"Don't worry, tiger. It's nothing bad that I told Cap and Hug. I know they just arrived here, but they are going somewhere for me. Though they'll be back in less than fifteen minutes."

###

The two black men, one overweight and one skinny, appeared in the gift shop. The female cashier informed them that the gift shop did not carry harmonicas, but she added, "I just so happen to be involved with a girl's club that teaches them how to play the harmonica. It's mostly a male dominated instrument ya know and I'm trying to remedy that."

"We already know that from watching an interview with you on the TV news," Dobey and Huggy said almost in unison.

They then took turns explaining to her who Starsky and Hutch were. They also told her about Hutch being run off the road and being trapped in the canyon. Among other things, Hutch had been in the canyon long enough to be badly sunburned, and even his lips had blisters.

"Poor baby," she sympathized with the blond man.

They hadn't forgotten to tell her that Hutch and Starsky were cops. Cops who on their off time often did volunteer work that benefitted both females and males and of various ages. She then dug around in her big handbag and took out an unused harmonica. "Tell Starsky he doesn't have to return it and tell Hutch I'll be praying for him."

###

Dobey and Huggy returned to Hutch's room. Giving Starsky a thumbs up as a sign that they now had a harmonica.

Hutch looked even more exhausted, but he insisted that he was way too wired to go to sleep.

He also insisted his back still hurt like crazy and it also contributed to making it impossible for him to finally get some much needed zzzzzs.

"That's what you think, kiddo bout not being able to go to sleep." Starsky said.

"Kiddo." Also, something that Starsky had taken up sometimes calling Hutch, along with 'tiger.'

Starsky pointed to the closet. "Capn'. Please go get me two more pillows from there."

When Dobey returned with them, "Thanks," Starsky said.

Hutch already had one pillow behind his back but wasn't leaning against it. He feared that even with the strong painkiller he'd been given, it would just hurt way too much to recline.

Starsky, however, placed the extra pillows behind Hutch and with his hands gently guided Hutch to how he needed him positioned in the small confines of the bed… at the same time making Hutch comfortable.

The brunet then asked Dobey and Huggy to leave the room and come back tomorrow. They left with no problems. That was after Huggy discreetly slipped the harmonica to Starsky.

Now he placed it to his lips, and he played songs that would lull Hutch to sleep.

And they did.

Chapter Two

The following day found Starsky having to work over 9 hours of a 12-hour shift. When he arrived at the hospital, he noticed that even though Hutch was still hooked up to an IV providing him fluids; he was greedily drinking water from a big see-through cup and like he'd never had water before!

Even his urine catheter bag was close to being too full and needing to be taken care of by a nurse.

Well, what did Starsky expect? When Hutch was in the canyon, he'd been deprived of water except for what little he'd had out of Sonny's canteen, and the lack of water had made Hutch very dehydrated and close to being in kidney failure.

"Hey, babe. How bout laying off that water for a bit? I don't need ya floating away on me."

"Fat chance of that happening! Not with this sling thingamajig continuing to hold my left leg in the air and in case you haven't noticed, I'm still hooked up to an IV!"

Afterwards Hutch couldn't help griping that he didn't like it at all… having an IV needle in his arm and "Even before that ugly and cruel and rotten 'incident' with Ben Forest and his gang!"

Hutch didn't want to think about them anymore, he suddenly changed the subject. "Can you get me a fresh hospital gown? This one doesn't stink yet of body odor, but it feels way too something or other that I can't quite put my finger on."

"Your gown probably has cooties. Transmitted to it by obnoxious people. Sadly, you've come across some of them today, haven't you buddy?"

"Yes." Hutch didn't enthuse the word when there was nothing to be happy about those kinds of people. Except he was glad there also were some very nice people who worked at the hospital.

There really was no such thing as cooties…when speaking of it as a children's term for an imaginary germ or repellent quality transmitted by obnoxious or untidy people, but Starsky went to fetch Hutch a fresh gown anyway and helped him out of the one he was wearing and into the one in the brunet's right hand.

A nurse did come to take care of the urine catheter bag and later, although Starsky remained in the hospital room with Hutch, the blond suddenly found himself upset. In turmoil was more like it. Having suddenly remembered that in the canyon, two teenage boys had no reservations about stripping him of his wallet. There wasn't a whole lot of money in it, but there certainly were some credit cards that had quite a lot of funds available to buy things with! He didn't know the boys had sold the cards to a stuffed owl loving Harry Flask, who then sold them to someone else. Either way, surely the cards were making their rounds in a lot of stores.

Problem was, which ones? And this late at night how was he going to get a hold of the credit card companies and inform them he'd been robbed!?

"Calm down, Hutch," Starsky ordered him gently.

"I can't calm down!" Hutch shouted.

"Can," Starsky insisted.

"Can't!" Hutch shot back.

"Time to get out the harmonica and play some more tunes for you?"

"What?"

"You heard me."

Hutch ran both of his hands through his hair. Hair that had been washed, rinsed, and dried by a certified nurses' aide. She'd been careful to avoid disturbing the nasty gash on his forehead. He thought she'd gotten all the gritty sand from the canyon out of his hair, but apparently, she hadn't. His scalp itched, and he began heavily scratching it.

"Stop that. You'll cause your scalp to start bleeding if you don't," Starsky chastised him.

"Yes, dear." Was Hutch's smart-mouthed comeback.

"I mean what I said, Hutch." Starsky walked on over to the bed with the harmonica in hand. Placing it on his lips and positioning his hands where they needed to be, he was playing Hutch's favorite song and Hutch relaxed. Starsky wanted to keep him that way, Hutch fell into a deep sleep. He woke up in the morning all refreshed and was ready to even eat the hospital's non-tasty breakfast.

###

It was time to go home. Hutch had seen the replacement Ford Galaxie and loved every inch of it. "Beautiful. Just beautiful!" he'd told Starsky. "That's what I was afraid you was going to say," Starsky replied. But he also told Hutch the car wasn't quite ready to hit the streets, and Merle the Earl would be coming by in a while to tow it back to his workshop.

"My car better not come back looking like a blueberry on wheels or something from outer space!" Hutch warned Starsky.

"Don't worry. It won't and I can promise you that," Starsky assured Hutch.

About five minutes of more conversation passed when Starsk announced to Hutch, "It's time to get in the Torino." With no one to help get Hutch in it, that proved to be a hard task.

Starsky was driving through the hospital parking lot when Hutch's whole body broke out in goosebumps. Its way of showing he was getting extremely nervous about riding in the car.

"You okay, buddy?" Starsky asked him. Knowing he wasn't. Giving him a comforting pat on the shoulders anyhow and putting the car in park before turning off the ignition.

"I can't can't can't do this. Can't ride in a ca ca car!" Hutch stammered. "Let me out! Let me out!" he screamed, his anxiety getting the best of him, even though they weren't going anywhere until Hutch was ready and settled himself down.

It looked like they were going to be spending at least 15 minutes more parked in the lot when Hutch said, "Hey. I recognize that car. It's my dad. What is he doing here?"

"Probably came to visit you. He loves you, you dummy."

"Okay, I can buy that. I have a good relationship with my parents, but where's Mom?" Hutch inquired. "She loves me too."

"Your mom might have gotten a cold since you talked to your dad and her on the phone the other day and didn't want to chance you getting a cold too. Your body is still quite vulnerable to other people's illnesses ya know."

Hutch didn't say anything more, but in the confines of the car and getting yet another flashback of being down in the canyon that was scorching hot in the day and freezing cold at night, "Come on Starsk. Let me out of the car. NOW." He demanded, his voice carrying out the rolled-down passenger window and across some of the parking lot.

His words just so happened to have reached his dad's ears, suddenly the older man was standing next to the Torino.

"What's going on here?" Lucas asked.

"Your kid's having another flashback. He'll be okay in a minute. Won't you Hutch?"

"Yeah. Yeah" Hutch said, nervously wringing his shirt with his hands. Thinking this flashback's effect on him was going to last longer than a lousy minute.

Both Starsky and Lucas sensed Hutch's uncertainty about how long it was going to take him to get back to normal, "How bout I go rent us a big truck for all three of us to ride in?" Lucas suggested.

"Sorry. But that's no good. It was a man in a big dump truck that pushed me and my car off into the canyon in the 1st place, Dad."

Chapter Three

Starsky spotted a wheelchair that someone had just left in the parking lot and for anyone else to use. The wheelchair that Hutch had been sitting in was currently folded up in the Torino and would be a big pain to drag back out of it.

On the other hand, Lucas was a large, not overweight man, and looked like he worked out in a gym daily. With his help getting Hutch out of the Torino and into the wheelchair someone had left in the lot was easier than Starsky could ever imagine.

Hutch and Starsky found out from the man that it was true that Hutch's mom Kari did have a cold. "Not a bad enough one to turn into pneumonia," Lucas informed his worried son. "On top of that, she has our great housekeeper taking care of her while I'm here visiting you and your friend. I can tell that you my son and Starsky are still exceptionally close and that's why I included visiting him too so you wouldn't be parted while I'm here."

Starsky snapped his fingers again. "A bus. A long one. Is that something you would feel comfortable riding in Hutch? That is providing your dad can afford to rent it."

"Kari and I aren't filthy rich, but we are financially well off that renting a bus will be no problem."

"And I know just the man who can get us the bus to rent. His name is Huggy Bear," Hutch said.

###

The bus turned out to be an excellent idea on how to get Hutch to Starsky's place. Also, leave and run some errands; go to the movies, the library, go watch some other people bowl, and such like.

Hutch was confident that after the cast came off, he could manage using just the crutches he'd been given and climb up the Venice Place stairs with no problems. Soon afterwards, he could be in a car or truck and without flipping out.

The four days that Lucas was in Bay City he stayed in a nice motel not too far from Starsky's place.

During the night at Starsky's house, Hutch was prone to having nightmares about his car accident and some other things, but each time Starsky woke Hutch up and out of a nightmare, the brunet played Hutch something on the harmonica and it calmed Hutch down so he woke up refreshed in the morning and so did Starsky.

The End.


End file.
